Perioperative Registered Nurses

Burke J.P. (2003). Infection control- a problem for patient safety. New England Journal Medicine, 348(7):651-656.

As a leader in health care, it is important that employees have the proper education and training for compliance with infection control. An infection control practitioner should be assigned surveillance of infections, calculate infection rates, and report these numbers to the appropriate personnel. Clinical nurses, such as nurses, should have periodic evaluations to ensure they are practicing patient safety. There are many other key factors that should be implemented in health care facilities to improve infection control. First is hand hygiene; there could be random observers periodically monitoring a certain floor or department for hand sanitation practices. Secondly, is the health care environment. This includes, making sure employees are sanitizing surfaces and equipment, educating visitors and families on infection control measures, and properly using personal protective equipment. Improper use, wear, and removal of personal protective equipment can cause serious health consequences to the worker and the patients, which means employees need be continuously trained and educated on this equipment.

Service personnel experience a tremendous number of traumatic experiences while in service. These traumatic experiences include situations such as different forms of explosion, gun battles, vehicle crashes, helicopter crashes, intense fear, seeing fellow service members dying as well as a feeling of helplessness (CITE). These are situations that an average American can simply not fathom. Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) who work with service personnel typically do understand these traumatic experiences. In this article, Wilson and Pokorny conducted a study to understand the experiences CRNAs have with service personnel who have traumatic brain injury (TBI) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and are emerging from general anesthesia with emergence delirium (ED) (CITE). There are no studies in literature that contain information on patients with these specific problems, which makes this study important. Wilson and Pokorny hope other researchers will get involved to help learn more about this subject and get the service personnel and CRNAs the advanced medical help they need.

I have long heard about how CRNA’s make a lot of money and that I should look into obtaining the education for this career. It wasn’t until now that I realized what a great profession this would be. I may not be able to complete what is required for this career, but maybe I can tell my fellow nursing students what an awesome career this could be.

Nurse anesthetists have been providing anesthesia care to patients in the United States for more than 150 years. The credential CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist) came into existence in 1956. CRNAs are anesthesia professionals who safely administer approximately 40 million anesthetics to patients each year in the United States, according to the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) 2014 Practice Profile Survey. CRNAs are the primary providers of anesthesia care in rural America, enabling healthcare facilities in these medically underserved areas to offer obstetrical, surgical, pain management and trauma stabilization services. In some states, CRNAs are the sole providers in nearly 100 percent of the rural hospitals. According to a 1999 report from the Institute of Medicine, anesthesia care is nearly 50 times safer than it was in the early 1980s. Numerous outcomes studies have demonstrated that there is no difference in the quality of care provided by CRNAs and their physician counterparts. CRNAs provide anesthesia in collaboration with surgeons, anesthesiologists, dentists, podiatrists, and other qualified healthcare professionals. When anesthesia is administered by a nurse anesthetist, it is recognized as the practice of nursing; when administered by an anesthesiologist, it is recognized as the practice of medicine. Regardless of whether their educational background is in nursing or medicine, all anesthesia professionals give anesthesia the same way.

Weston, D., & Ebrary. (2008). Infection prevention and control: Theory and clinical practice for healthcare professionals. Hoboken, NJ;Chichester, England;: John Wiley & Sons.

The hospital is compliant with infection control protocol according to the CDC standard guidelines. “Hand hygiene, contact precautions, as well as cleaning and disinfecting patient care equipment and the patient’s environment are essential strategies for preventing the spread of health care–associated infections. Hand hygiene is addressed in NPSG.07.01.01. Contact precautions for patients with

Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) can be employed under two practice models. Each one of these models, Anesthesia Care Team (ACT) and CRNA-only, affords their own level of autonomy to the CRNA practitioner. The CRNA is supervised to some degree in all practice models; however, this does not reflect the level of competency or safety of CRNAs. The stringent supervision does not imply that academic standards of CRNAs are beneath that of any other practitioner. The requirement of supervision for anesthesia care provided by CRNAs is rooted in financial reimbursement. Cost effectiveness is the driving force behind why some institutions elect one model over the other (Hogan, Seifert, Moore, & Simonson, 2010). Each model yields it

The American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN) is the world’s largest specialty nursing organization (“American Association of Critical Care Nurses,” n.d.). There are more than 100,000 practicing nurses that are members of the AACN (“American Association of Critical Care Nurses,” n.d.). The purpose of the AACN is to provide expert knowledge to critical care nurses to create a healthcare system that is driven by the needs of patients and their families (“American Association of Critical Care Nurses,” n.d.). Their mission is to promote and enhance consumer health and safety by establishing and maintaining high standards of professional practice (“American Association of Critical Care Nurses,” n.d.). The headquarters for the organization

When you’re in a hospital, clinic, or nursing home you are constantly surrounded by nurses. However, you don’t really know what type of nurse’s you’re surrounded by, or maybe you do; but would you be able to tell what the differences between the two really are? I’ve heard many people state that Registered Nurses (RN’s) and Registered Practical Nurses (RPN’s) are the same, however, they are not. RN’s and RPN’s differ in many areas such as schooling, level of patient care, and salary due to ranking.

Every day while caring for patients, dedicated health care workers all over the world face potential risks of exposure to infectious disease bacteria or bloodborne viruses due to unintentional punctures with needlesticks or sharps, or accidental contact with bodily secretions, excretions and contaminated items (Wilburn, 2004). The occurrence of undesirable complications can arise from medical errors when safety guideline and control mechanisms are not followed. On occasion healthcare workers may accidentally acquire infections due to the misuse or improper fit of personal protective equipment (PPE) and coverings while attending to individuals seeking out medical attention that may be unexpectedly and unknowingly carrying a communicable disease

As a conclusion, our nursing care will continue to evolve as we continue to identify the best approach to providing care. Throughout nursing school, our class has been educated about the importance of preventing catheter acquired urinary tract infections. If a hospital-acquired infection is obtained, that will place the patient at risk for other infections, increase the hospitalization period, and the hospital is responsible for healthcare expenses. Not to mention, a majority of these infections could be avoided through proper nursing care.

The mission of this nursing journal is to provide research and education related to infection control, epidemiology, quality, disease prevention, and disease management (American Journal of Infection Control, 2017). This nursing journal’s mission and content is relevant in relation to CAUTI, and patient care practices provided by professionals noted within the target audience below. Combating healthcare associated infections requires a collaborative effort from every member of the healthcare team (Rabideaux, 2013). Each member of the team being accountable for their actions and contributions toward reduction of CAUTI and all hospital associated infections (Loughlin, et al.,

Tartari, E., & Mamo, J. (2011). Pre-educational intervention survey of healthcare practitioners' compliance with infection prevention measures in cardiothoracic surgery: Low compliance but internationally comparable surgical site infection rate. Journal Of Hospital Infection, 77(4), 348-351 4p.

When the nursing staff and doctors are in the theatre with the individual during the operation, it's important for anyone to ensure they follow strict guidelines to ensure there is a very low risk of an infection to the patient by taking every precaution.